After the Denim

After the Denim is a faithful rendering of a Raymond Carver short story about a man coming to grips with his wife's terminal illness, compressed (like Joyce's The Dead) into a single evening. Adaptations of this sort can be tricky, especially since they rely so much on subtext, but this one successfully navigates the small epiphanies without spilling over into sentiment. The nuance is there in the finely tailored performances and humdrum trappings. The filmmakers get great mileage from simple locations: a bland bingo hall is turned into a dramatic space; an ordinary parking lot becomes confrontational. An auspicious performance from first-time writer-director Goyins and longtime producer-director Rosenfelt.